Climate change

Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and the transport of food make up a significant proportion of global emissions, while climate change will impact food systems through increased drought, flooding and extreme weather events.

We are all familiar with the story of the environmental campaigners standing up to the evil MegaCorp and their nefarious effect on the food supply. While I have no wish to detract from such movements, here I want to tell another story – the nefarious consumers and their invidious effects on the growth of sustainable wine-making.

Austria proclaims itself Europe’s greenest wine-making industry, with 90% of vineyards under some form of sustainable cultivation – whether integrated pest management and intercropping, the more stringent organic rules, or even biodynamic farming. Some go even a step further, to what is called ‘natural’ wine which eschews most technological fixes available to winemakers, as well as farming organically or biodynamically. Yet the maker of the un/healthy wines, a producer of natural wines, exports about 90 percent of his wines, including to the world-famous restaurant NOMA in Copenhagen, since people in Austria won’t drink it.

The 2017 Oxford Food Forum seeks to showcase diverse understandings of the food system that break down traditional silos constraining connectivity between people, places, and problems within the food system.

Sustainable use and production of biochar in the UK

June 20 & 21st, 2013, Oxford

The conference is a unique event that aims to broaden the biochar spectrum, bring together all those that will benefit and launch a unique and innovative industry at the same time. This low carbon, community economy event is being held at Oxford Town Hall, Oxford.

We want to invite businesses, community groups, researchers, local authorities, waste management companies, composting facility, growing medium producers and biochar producers……. In fact, we believe that every business and every community can benefit from the sustainable production and deployment of biochar and it’s technology in some way, even if they only support it within their community.

So, if you’re interested in reducing costs and yet increasing profits, increasing productivity, reducing GHG, ISO accreditation, the science behind it or just in helping generate a low carbon economy and create a carbon sink and store within your low carbon community, then you need to come and meet the people that can tell you how to make it happen.

The conference will cover a wide range of talks given by industry, science and research leaders as well as policy-makers, waste specialists, technology providers and producers. The day includes a light lunch and refreshments and tickets start from as little as £65. Concession prices available.

You can download the full agenda from the Biochar Foundation website here